Earl Thigpen
Well-known member
Got up Friday morning bright and early and drank my coffee as I was walking down to the equipment shed. Disconnected the shredder from the 1486 and hooked up the hay mower. Brought everything to the house and got the grease gun down. Out of grease. Go to shed to get a new tube. Box is empty. Found another grease gun that had some grease (a little). Managed to greas one zerk fitting and out of grease. Found a 5 gal. container of Marfax and filled tube by hand. Grease everywhere. Grease where grease should never be! How did that happen. I don't remember scratching there :shock:
Anyway, got in the hay field by 8am. Started cutting in 4th gear. Choke mower. Got down and adjusted tension on belts. Started again - choke mower. Drop to 3rd gear. Better but - - - choke mower. Adjust belts again and start mowing. Choke mower. Drop to 2nd. Mowing fine but can walk faster that tractor is moving. Make two rounds and notice alternator amp meter is pegged (had been smelling something "electrical" for the past 5 minutes). Shut tractor off, walk to house, call supplier in town and arrange to pick new alternator. $120 and an hour later I'm mowing again. Choke mower, drop to 1st gear, choke mower, tighten belts again, choke mower, smoke from belt area on mower. Call supplier again to verify he had belts (I asked if he had them while buying alternator). It's late so I asked if he would just set them outside and I would pick them up. Said he would wait.
Two hours later (had to pull the skirt off to get the cover of the belts off) and I'm mowing again, 2nd gear, choke mower, adjust belts (new belts), mow, adjust belts, etc.
It's now 8:45 pm and starting to get a little dark. Got about 6 acres down - not too bad considering I can usually do about 5-6 acres an hour! Grass is so thick that most of the time it won't fall when cut.
Saturday morning, repeat routine, grease equipment, grease gun empty, fill with Marfax, how did I get grease there (I don't remember scratching there)? Managed to cut another 2 acres and - you guessed it - started to rain. Come to house and check blades on mower. Found two stations that were mounted upside down (How the heck did that happen????). No new blades, too late to go to town, found some old blades and found a couple that could be used. Put them on - day shot.
Sunday morning, had breakfast (that was a treat) and waited until about 10 am. Bright sun, hot, gentle breeze, PERFECT! Got rake ready by greasing (fill tube with Marfax, how did grease get .....) and replacing a few rake teeth. Got to field by 11 am and rolled everything over to dry bottom side. By 5 pm hay cut on Friday is nice and dry. Roll over again and get baler. Baler was greased before I put it up last year. Checked everything out, killed a couple of yellow jacket nests, went to field. First bale done, everything worked just great, tied perfect, cut the string perfect, alarm worked perfect, it's gonna be OK. Closed door and moved into position for second bale. As door was closing heard a POP and baler stopped turning, sheared those dadgum pins. Rummage around and found 6 bolts (pins) and three nuts (they're metric). Put one bolt in and twised it off. OK got two nuts left and five bolts. Didn't tighten the nuts to preserve what I have left. We're baling again.
Gosh, I love it when a plan comes together. Everything is working great, spitting out one bale every 100 to 150 yards (hay is very good). 20 bales down and haven't made a complete round yet when BANG, very loud but baler is still turning. Full bale alarm goes off and everything ties just fine and I kick the bale out, close the door and start wrapping the next one. Tie it and kickit out but I notice it's really funny looking, mis-shappen. What the heck caused that? Check baler to determine what broke. Found cable connecting tension springs to arm at top of baler broken.
That does it. I'm out of business until Monday (maybe) when I can replace the cable. Baler's choked anyway and I'm too tired to clean it out and it's too dark. Go to house, eat a SPAM sandwich, take a shower and go to bed.
The phone rings about 10:30. It's my wife informing me that my best friend's no. 2 daughter had just been found dead in her apt. Don't know what happened but it looks like suicide. Get up, close the gates, load up and come home to be with family. To HEII with the hay.
Anyway, got in the hay field by 8am. Started cutting in 4th gear. Choke mower. Got down and adjusted tension on belts. Started again - choke mower. Drop to 3rd gear. Better but - - - choke mower. Adjust belts again and start mowing. Choke mower. Drop to 2nd. Mowing fine but can walk faster that tractor is moving. Make two rounds and notice alternator amp meter is pegged (had been smelling something "electrical" for the past 5 minutes). Shut tractor off, walk to house, call supplier in town and arrange to pick new alternator. $120 and an hour later I'm mowing again. Choke mower, drop to 1st gear, choke mower, tighten belts again, choke mower, smoke from belt area on mower. Call supplier again to verify he had belts (I asked if he had them while buying alternator). It's late so I asked if he would just set them outside and I would pick them up. Said he would wait.
Two hours later (had to pull the skirt off to get the cover of the belts off) and I'm mowing again, 2nd gear, choke mower, adjust belts (new belts), mow, adjust belts, etc.
It's now 8:45 pm and starting to get a little dark. Got about 6 acres down - not too bad considering I can usually do about 5-6 acres an hour! Grass is so thick that most of the time it won't fall when cut.
Saturday morning, repeat routine, grease equipment, grease gun empty, fill with Marfax, how did I get grease there (I don't remember scratching there)? Managed to cut another 2 acres and - you guessed it - started to rain. Come to house and check blades on mower. Found two stations that were mounted upside down (How the heck did that happen????). No new blades, too late to go to town, found some old blades and found a couple that could be used. Put them on - day shot.
Sunday morning, had breakfast (that was a treat) and waited until about 10 am. Bright sun, hot, gentle breeze, PERFECT! Got rake ready by greasing (fill tube with Marfax, how did grease get .....) and replacing a few rake teeth. Got to field by 11 am and rolled everything over to dry bottom side. By 5 pm hay cut on Friday is nice and dry. Roll over again and get baler. Baler was greased before I put it up last year. Checked everything out, killed a couple of yellow jacket nests, went to field. First bale done, everything worked just great, tied perfect, cut the string perfect, alarm worked perfect, it's gonna be OK. Closed door and moved into position for second bale. As door was closing heard a POP and baler stopped turning, sheared those dadgum pins. Rummage around and found 6 bolts (pins) and three nuts (they're metric). Put one bolt in and twised it off. OK got two nuts left and five bolts. Didn't tighten the nuts to preserve what I have left. We're baling again.
Gosh, I love it when a plan comes together. Everything is working great, spitting out one bale every 100 to 150 yards (hay is very good). 20 bales down and haven't made a complete round yet when BANG, very loud but baler is still turning. Full bale alarm goes off and everything ties just fine and I kick the bale out, close the door and start wrapping the next one. Tie it and kickit out but I notice it's really funny looking, mis-shappen. What the heck caused that? Check baler to determine what broke. Found cable connecting tension springs to arm at top of baler broken.
That does it. I'm out of business until Monday (maybe) when I can replace the cable. Baler's choked anyway and I'm too tired to clean it out and it's too dark. Go to house, eat a SPAM sandwich, take a shower and go to bed.
The phone rings about 10:30. It's my wife informing me that my best friend's no. 2 daughter had just been found dead in her apt. Don't know what happened but it looks like suicide. Get up, close the gates, load up and come home to be with family. To HEII with the hay.
